Those Tart Little Red Berries

The North American Cranberry

Thanksgiving is over, but for the next month, fresh cranberries will continue to be easily found in grocery stores and gourmet food emporiums. And that is good news!

Cranberries are one of the healthiest fruits that are available to us. Ok, so they may make you pucker up a little (is that a bad thing?) due to their tartness, but they are delicious and so nutritious. Packed with nutrients like antioxidants and other natural compounds, cranberries are a great choice for the health conscious consumer. In recent years we have even been able to enjoy sweetened, dried cranberries all year round.

Along with blueberries and the Concord grape, cranberries are one of 3 native North American fruits that are commercially grown.

According to the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association, “The cranberry helped sustain Americans for hundreds of years. Native Americans used cranberries in a variety of foods, the most popular was pemmican - a high protein combination of crushed cranberries, dried deer meat and melted fat - they also used it as a medicine to treat arrow wounds and as a dye for rugs and blankets.”

Contrary to popular TV commercials, cranberry vines do not grow in underwater. They grow in bogs and can live for a very long time. Some vines in Massachusetts are over 150 years old and they continue to produce fruit to this day.

Here’s a recipe for a delicious Cranberry Bread from the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association.

Servings: 1 Loaf

Ingredients:
1/2 C. Butter
1 Tbs. Grated Orange Peel
3 Large Eggs, Beaten
2 1/2 C. Flour
1 Tsp. Baking Soda
2 C. Fresh or Frozen Cranberries, Chopped
1 C. Sugar
1Tsp. Vanilla
3/4 C. Buttermilk
1/4 Tsp. Salt
3/4 C. Pecans, Chopped

Method:
Preheat oven to 350°. Spray bottom only of 9" X 5" loaf pan with cooking spray. Beat butter, sugar, orange peel and vanilla in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. Combine flour, baking soda and salt, add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating at low speed just until blended. Fold cranberries and nuts into batter. Turn into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes. Cool slightly in pan. Remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

See and Taste the Difference from the Fruit Arrangement Pros

How many times have you heard, "Practice Makes Perfect"? Or been told to persevere, to keep working at something?

Here's an illustration of the difference between the pro golfer and the amateur.

How much of a spread do you think there is between the number of strokes that a top pro and a top amateur take in any given golf round?

Usually, it is only a few, 2 or 3 shots.

What makes the pro the odds on winner of the round? His quest for perfection.

The amateur practices until he can hit a shot right. The pro practices until he can't hit it wrong.

Like the pro, Flowers to Eat has practiced our art of fruit design to perfect the look and taste of our arrangements. We think you will be able to see and taste the beautiful, delicious difference.

The Foodie and the Health Nut Together At Last: Scrumptious Healthy Meal Ideas

Thank you to contributing blogger, Carolyn Knight, for the following article on Healthy Eating!

The Foodie and the Health Nut Together At Last: Scrumptious Healthy Meal Ideas

It is unfortunate, but true, that plain veggies rarely inspire mouth-watering cravings, and French fries are not the best friend of hips and arteries. Do not despair. There is hope. Delicious food and healthy food are not mutually exclusive. Healthy meal ideas do exist to bring enjoyment, flavor, and nutrient-rich dishes to your table. If indulging in fatty foods can make you feel tired and cause long-term health concerns, then why not figure out a way to dress up disease fighting foods that will tempt your palate and leave you feeling energetic and guilt-free.

Even the healthiest of health nuts will cheat from time to time, so learning portion control can let you enjoy a taste without busting a seam.

1. Variety is the Spice of Life

Staring at a pile of boring lettuce will make anybody reach for the spaghetti; however, mixing all different kinds of flavors, textures, and food groups can turn a boring salad into a complex and interesting meal. Slice grilled flank steak, about 2-3 ounces per person. Then add it to a fresh salad with walnuts, dried cranberries, sliced mushrooms, shredded carrots, and beets with a good homemade champagne-shallot vinaigrette for a colorful, well-balanced salad that tastes a little different with each bite.

2. Size Matters

Now, even if you have the whole eating healthy, balanced meals thing down, inevitably someone will walk into the office with cupcakes for no good reason whatsoever. You are facing a difficult challenge, teetering on the verge of well behaved eater and no-holds-barred-vacuum ready to inhale the entire tray. There is good news: portion control is your friend. Halve the cupcake, put it on a napkin, and walk back to your desk. If you go to a dinner party, and the host is serving steak, not to worry—just know your portion sizes. A 3-ounce cut of meat will look roughly like a deck of cards.

3. You Cook It, You Control It

When you cook at home you get to decide what goes into your dishes, as well as how much of your dish goes onto your plate. Try new things and liven up dinner time by stocking your spice rack and choosing vibrant, colorful produce. Yellow fruits and vegetables contain beta-carotene and vitamin C, and blue and purple varieties house zeaxanthin, resveratrol and fiber.

Healthy meal ideas are the way to satisfy your appetite without feeling like ‘denial’ is your new food mantra. It is all about balance, portioning, and taking matters into your own hands. Fresh ingredients, variety, and spice are the key to boost flavor into an exciting and healthy meal, straight out of your very own kitchen.

Super Summer Seminar Sale!

If you have been a fan of our website, our You Tube videos, or our facebook page, you know that Flowers to Eat offers comprehensive classes for budding entrepreneurs who want to start their own independent fruit arrangement business

As the summer winds down, we are offering a super savings on our 3 and 4 day classes.
If you register for either our 3 day or our 4 day class by August 31, 2011 and take the class by October 31, 2011, we will deduct $500.00 from the cost of the class.

Contact Nancy or Ruth at 814-341-2328 for more information, or send a note to info@flowerstoeat for all the details.

Selling Food Items from your Home OK'd in Florida

Have you ever thought about starting your own food based business from your home?
When you looked into it, did you discover that you needed to use a commercial kitchen and be licensed?

Well, this has all changed, and budding entrepreneurs can now get their business started in their home.

On July 2, 2011, the Florida Cottage Food Act became a state law. This new law allows small businesses to prepare their food products in their own kitchens without obtaining a food permit from the Department of Agriculture.

The law allows cooks to bake cakes, cookies, or breads, create jams, jellies and vinegars, and a number of other products in their own home and market them.

There are a number of conditions that you need to be aware of, however.

1) Annual gross sales cannot exceed $15,000.
2) The products cannot be sold over the Internet or by mail order
3) The products cannot be sold wholesale to restaurants or food stores.

For more information, contact your local Small Business Information Center. They are running workshops to help budding entrepreneurs understand this new law and its caveats. In Hillsborough County, you can learn more by logging onto www.hillsborough-county.org/sbic or call 813-914-4028.

Basic information for this blog obtained from the In The Field Magazine, July 2011

Set off the Fireworks!!!!

Let's celebrate the independence of the U.S. this weekend with a Stars 'n' Stripes bouquet from Flowers to Eat or your favorite arrangement in one of our Stars and Stripes vases.

We can also create custom berries dipped in white, milk, or dark chocolate and rolled in red, white, and blue sprinkles or laced with red, white and blue chocolate swizzles. They are a great addition to any 4th of July picnic or party.

Flowers to Eat's latest video

Here are some of our most popular arrangements, set to music!
Copy and paste this url into your browser to see the video with all the text included:
http://youtu.be/q1Z3dB4NlRs
or
click here to view the bouquets.

flowers to eat

More PowerPoint presentations from Ruth Doroslovac

Thimbleberries and Cloudberries by Nancy Schramm

Here in Tampa, we have had a beautiful spring. However, all good things must come to an end, at least that's what the saying claims. As May winds down, summer weather is already upon us. This means that local strawberries are pretty much a fond memory. Local blueberries are still available and there are nearby U-Pick blueberry farms in our area. Sweet blueberries are so good by themselves and they add a delicious shot of anti-oxidants to pancakes, waffles, smoothies, and salads.

While strawberries and blueberries may be the best known members of the berry family, and the ones that Flowers to Eat most often incorporates into our bouquets, trays and arrangements, there are many other types of berries available. Of course, there are the other readily available in grocery stores berries: raspberries, blackberries, and cranberries. But have you tried Cloudberries, Thimbleberries or Loganberries?

If you have visited the upper pennisula of Michigan, you may have tried Thimbleberry jam. Because they are very delicate and do not pack well, they are seldom sold commercially other than in the local areas in which they are grown.

Cloudberries grow wild across most of Alaska, Canada, and some of the northern-most continental United States. It is a botanical vestige of the Ice Ages and is under legal protection in parts of Germany. High in Vitamin C, the ripe fruits are golden-yellow, soft and juicy. They are made into a special beer in Canada. Wikipedia states that they are made into 'Eskimo Ice-Cream' in Alaska by mixing them with seal oil or reindeer or caribou fat. Hmm, I wonder if Ben and Jerrys has heard of this flavor?

Anyway, as summer approaches throughout the United States, we hope you will experiment with at least one berry or fruit that is new to you. Happy Exploring!

The Most Fragrant Necklace

My last blog entry talked about my recent trip to Hawaii, and the traditional Kalua Pork that we ate while there. There is even a delicious 3 ingredient recipe for Kalua Pork that received rave reviews at my house. If you have tried it, I hope you liked it as much as we did.

Ever since our first trip to Hawaii, I have loved the fragrance of Plumeria flowers. Whether they are pink, yellow or white, most of them smell absolutely wonderful. To me, their fragrance will always remind me of the islands and the first lei that my husband bought for me on our honeymoon.

On our way to our first Luau, Dan bought a beautiful lei made up of 35 – 50 white and yellow plumaria blossoms. The fragrance was heavenly, and I loved having it around my neck……..for the first hour or two.

The perfume of large number of plumaria flowers can actually be overpowering. I found the best way to resolve the super strong fragrance, and still let Dan know how much I liked his present. This was by taking the lei off from around my neck and wrapping it several times around my wrist. Now I could enjoy the fragrance, it wasn’t too strong but just right, and I was still wearing this lovely gift.

It wasn’t until a later island visit that I learned how to extend the life of any plumeria or orchid lei. I was told to spray it lightly with cool water, put it in a plastic bag, leaving the bag slightly open at one end. The directions then instructed me to wrap a towel around the plastic bag and place the whole thing in a cooler or refrigerator. By following these directions, I was able to wear my subsequent leis several more times. In fact, they lasted about a week, with the orchid leis sometimes lasting even longer than that.

Coming back to my home in Tampa, I brought several cuttings of Plumeria, or as they are called back here on the Mainland, frangi-pangi. They were really easy to root and several of them have grown to be large trees with a trunk circumference of 8 – 10 inches. They really do not like the frost, however, and even though I live in central Florida, I need to be protect them during the winter.

So far, I haven’t had enough blossoms all at one time to make my own lei, but I do cut the flowers and bring them into the house to enjoy that wonderful natural Hawaiian perfume.

One Yummy Pig

I know that we usually talk about fruit or vegetables on this blog, but earlier this month, my husband and I celebrated our 20^th wedding anniversary by taking a trip to Hawaii. This actually wasn’t our first trip there. Our previous visits included our honeymoon and a trip for one of our sons who was married there.

However, we had not gone to a Luau since our honeymoon, and we thought it would be fun to do again.

My memory of the first Luau dinner was lots of fresh fruit, delicious tropical drinks, very good Kalua pork, and purplish wallpaper paste, or as they billed it, poi. I apologize to all the poi lovers out there, my palate just is not refined enough to recognize the subtle nuances of taste and flavor in the poi that I have had.

This year’s Luau was very similar. The food was delicious; the entertainment was a combination of my husband being part of the onstage hula lessons and a very good ‘history of the Hawaiian people’s arrival to the islands’ with wonderful Hawaiian music.

The focal point of the dinner was the roasted pig, ceremoniously unearthed from his underground oven or Imu, and carried to the carving table. It was delicious, tender, moist and flavorful. My husband loves this ‘other white meat’.

When we returned to the Mainland, I decided to try my hand at cooking Kalua Pork…..but without the underground cooking. On the web, I found an excellent recipe that had only 3 ingredients (including the pig) and lots of rave reviews. I did have to purchase Hawaiian Salt, all the reviewers who used either sea salt or regular salt said the meat was too salty. Hawaiian Salt actually includes some clay with the salt (there’s my piece of earth in the recipe).

I tried the recipe last week and it was delicious, just as good as that which we enjoyed at the Luau. So, for all of you who want to try a bit of Hawaiian pork at your home, without digging up your backyard, here are the directions I followed:

1 6 lb. pork butt

1 to 1/12 Tbs. Hawaiian Salt

1 Tbs. liquid smoke

Pierce the pork butt all over with a knife or fork

Rub the Hawaiian Salt and liquid smoke into the meat

Place meat in your slow cooker set to low heat

Allow to cook on low for 16 – 20 hours

Remove from cooker, shred the pork and serve with rolls, if desired.